


About a Girl

by boomslang



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: Billy the Kid (in the Fridge), Deathclaw, Far Harbor, Gen, No Main Quest Spoilers, Pre-Relationship, Recreational Drug Use, Side Quest Spoilers, Sparky - Freeform, Stream of Consciousness, Swearing, adding tags is fun, i wrote a thing, mentioned - Freeform, ramble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-24
Updated: 2016-05-24
Packaged: 2018-06-10 08:37:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6948034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boomslang/pseuds/boomslang
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John Hancock chats about his feelings about and travels with Nora.</p>
            </blockquote>





	About a Girl

I had called the vaultie, Nora, my kinda trouble when we started traveling together. To be honest, she wasn’t really my kinda anything at all. I liked her, not saying different, but tryin’ to figure out this gal defeated even my favorite mentat high.

Like the thing with the mongrel. Now, any Wasteland kid could tell you that dogs are trouble. There were exceptions, no offense is meant to Dogmeat, but everyone knows that if you see a dog outside of a settlement, it probably wants to eat your face. So you shoot it. Simple, right? But when Nora’d found that wounded mongrel bitch, she wasted a stimpack on the thing nursin’ it back to health. She cooed over the ugly beast and called it Sparky. Anyone else, they’d have ended up loosin’ fingers for their efforts. Nora though, Nora got licks and a friendly tagalong the rest of the day. And I'll admit, it was a little heartwarmin', seeing Nora cuddle up to that ugly thing.

So much worse and more ridiculous was the business with the deathclaw egg. We’d been trapped for hours in that shitty museum. Barely survived killing the deathclaw there. And after that whole nightmare, Nora wanted to go find another deathclaw so she could give back its egg. Hearin’ that, I thought she’d just gone crazy and was goin’ to get herself killed. But then we got to the nest and her mumbles of “Truce? Truce!” and “Good deathclaw,” actually worked! The monster never made a threatenin’ movement toward either of us. Didn’t make me want to linger any, but I wondered if Nora maybe wasn’t so crazy after all. 

I couldn’t entirely blame Nora or call her crazy for the Silver Shroud affair. After all, I’d introduced her to Kent. Then I’d gone with her to pick up that costume. And I’d told her “you do you,” in response to her runnin’ around in that getup, talkin' in that voice. I'd even told her about Sinjin. I was just a little disturbed at how easily the lines came to her, was all. It kinda made me wonder if there’d been a stack of Silver Shroud holotapes in that vault she’d come from, or if it just came natural.

The Shroud thing though, and the way she treated Kent, just showed how kindhearted Nora was. How much she’d go out of her way to make someone happy, even someone she’d just met. If that didn’t prove it, I could point to what she’d done for that radio guy in Diamond City. Another total stranger, and she’d gotten into that staged bar fight for him, just because the guy coulda used a little help. She’d even set him up with a pretty girl. Admittedly, the caps didn’t hurt. But saving Vadim was because she cared, not because she was worried about getting paid. So I started to figure maybe she was my kinda trouble after all. Huh, possibly she has a fondness for radio personalities.

I never met a softskin so soft on ghouls before either. I mean, me, no one disrespects me. Or if they do, it ain’t for long, you feel me? But Nora wasn’t so impressed with me at first, even after I stabbed a man in front of her. Maybe because I stabbed a man in front of her. On the other hand, she was always polite to Daisy. Took on a library full of super mutants just to return a book for the old gal. She was willin’ to hire on with No-Nose, work under a ghoul. That was a mistake, but Nora couldn’t’ve known that ahead of time. And I told you what she did for Kent. 

Then there was that poor ghoul kid, Billy. Stuck in a fridge over two hundred years. Nora got him out. Didn’t say a word about the chances his family was where he left it. Went all mother-yao-guai when that slaver tried to buy the kid. Then we got to the kid’s old house, and would you believe it, his parents were still there. I shit you not. Ghouls, not skeletons like I was afraid of. Nora, she teared up seein’ that family get back together. Accepted a hug from the mother, handshake from the father. That was when I realized I’d never seen her flinch from a ghoul. Well, maybe me on first meetin’, but I had just killed that guy. There are softskins that grew up around ghouls in Goodneighbor, and ain’t bothered by us, but outsiders usually take a while before they stop twitching like there’s a feral in the room, forget making skin contact. Nora’s a hell of an exception. Could make a ghoul think things a ghoul shouldn't think if a ghoul didn't know better than to think things like that.

I still don’t get how a vaultie manages this well in the Wasteland. But Nora takes on super mutants, ferals, raiders, and conversations with Brotherhood meatheads like she’s been doing it all her life. Shrieks a bit at radroaches, which is kinda funny. Anyway, she’s tryin’ to find her boy, but she’s always runnin’ around doin’ favors for just about everyone. I’m thinkin’ “General” of the Minutemen should be “Preston Garvey’s Gopher.” She’s Nick Valentine’s new gumshoe. Added to that, she’ll do just about any favor for just about anyone, like getting an old hat for some bartender- again with the deathclaw, and some feral ghouls for extra fun. Clearly I gotta stick around, because all that runnin' she's doin'? Someone's gotta run after her and watch her back. (It happens to be a nice view.)

Now Valentine’s gal Friday’s thrown a case Nora’s way that’s hit her in the gut- parents whose kid disappeared on them. In this case, the girl probably walked out on her own two feet, and no one’s dead, but Nora’s still struck where it hurts. Even if Valentine offered, she wouldn’t let him take this case from her. So I’m leavin’ the Commonwealth for the first time. Better go; don’t know if they’ll have chems there so I’d better stock up.

**Author's Note:**

> I butchered grammar; please forgive me. This work was not beta read.  
> Please leave a comment if you didn't like it so I can improve.


End file.
